Despite the fact that recent polling numbers indicate a decrease in public concern for climate change in the United States, global concern is at its highest level since 1998, according to a new poll released on Monday.

According to the GlobeScan/BBC World Service poll, nearly two-thirds of people now consider climate change is a “very serious” problem. This year's results indicate the greatest overall concern for the climate since GlobeScan began international tracking in 1998.

"The poll shows strong worldwide support for action on climate change, in spite of the recession," said GlobeScan chairman Doug Miller.

The poll was conducted between June and October and represents the opinions of of over 27,000 citizens in 23 countries. GlobeScan has regularly polled 13 of the countries included in the survey, for the past 11 years.

But concern about the climate in the world's two biggest carbon-emitting countries, China and the Unites States, has actually fallen. The percentage of American (45%) and Chinese citizens (57%) who see climate change as “very serious” is well below the 23-country average of 64 percent.

And while 89% of Chinese support government investments to address climate change even if these harm the economy only roughly one-half of Americans feel the same way.

One of the most remarkable findings of the GlobeScan poll was that despite the fact that only 57% of Chinese people questioned said climate change was a very serious concern, 89% of them supported government investment in tackling climate change - a figure higher than in any other country.

The news comes as the results of a separate poll, the Nielsen/Oxford University survey, also just released, showed a much different picture. Nielsen/Oxford found waning concern for the climate with only 37 percent of more than 27,000 Internet users in 54 countries saying they were "very concerned" about climate change, down from 41 percent in a similar poll two years ago.

The wide disparity in results between the two polls could perhaps be explained by the different methodologies employed, or even by the difference between "very serious" and "very concerned". Taken together, the two polls do show us at least one thing: public opinion researchers really don't have a good grip on public attitudes toward global warming,

About the Author:

Timothy Hurst is the editor at Ecopolitology and Earth & Industry as well as the executive editor of the LiveOAK Media Network. He writes mostly about energy and environmental politics, clean tech, infrastructure and green business. When not reading, writing, or talking about environmental politics to anyone who will listen, Tim likes to ski, hike with his aging lab and get dirty in his Colorado veggie garden. Find Tim on Google+.

Lies! This pie chart brought to you by the same people who brought you the [now debunked] hockey stick graph!

Timothy B. Hurst

Paige- I’m not sure which part you are calling lies – My reporting on the results of a poll of 27,000 people; BBC/GlobeScan’s data; or the 27,000 people themselves?

Public opinion polling rarely “lies” – I’m not even sure if it’s possible for a poll to lie. Doesn’t lying require agency?

neal

Now that UEA e-mail scandal have shown that there is a lot of dirty work going on in the “climate science” world, I just don’t know if I believe all this alarmist stuff anymore.

What if you have a doctor who is telling you that you need expensive and risky surgery for a condition that you are unsure about, and every time you discuss a 2nd opinion he steers you to other “experts” (his buddies) who tell you the same thing (you really need that surgery, your time is up, don’t bother to keep asking questions, you just gotta do it RIGHT NOW, time is up!).

Then right before the surgery, you find out that for years the doctor has been kind of a shady player in all the journal publishing he has done, that the “experts” he steered you to are in cahoots in the shady journal articles, and that the supposed grave condition is just possibly a figment of this whole bamboozlement, since the doctor and his shady “experts” have been taking money for years to promote their agenda.

In fact, it is even worse: There is evidence that this shady doc and his cronies have for YEARS been covering up and supressing other opinions, trying to drive all the research money to their own little cabal.

I think you would be right to be very suspicious of this doctor, would postpone the risky surgery, until you could do some more reasearch.

And it might be a VERY good idea to STOP LISTENING TO THE SHADY DOCTOR who has a nasty habit of fudging the data for his own purposes!

All of the “consensus” opinion on AGW is a crock! It has been built up over time by a core of dedicated scam artists, who should NOT be trusted for anything.

Now, do you feel like a fool, or what?

neal

Comment per your reply to Paige above:

The point here is that public opinion has for years been steered by a bunch of suspect men. Now the cat is out of the bag, how can we trust them at all? Why shoudl be continue to belive ANYTHING they have published, until it has been reviewed and deeply analysed?

So public opinion is based on a possible scame of huge proportions. Time to put on the brakes and take a long hard look at this so-called “climate science”.

If the “science” is real, then wating another year while it is reviewed will not hurt anything……just forget the alarmist view (ie, “we have to do someting NOW, stop asking questions, just DO WHAT I SAY RIGHT NOW”) and lets take some time to review this new information on a very objective basis.

DavidC

Quite interesting that the Nielsen internet poll was so different. I suspect it’s going to be a result of how easy it is for the Deniers – or anyone – to game online polls.

@Paige: your hat is on too tight.

http://planetpixelemporium.com James Hastings-Trew

Really? 89% of people in China say “sure, whatever the government wants” when polled. I’m shocked.

I think there is alot of public concern about climate change but the powers that be are sat on so much black tape or cant be bothered to address this important issue and concentrate on lining their pockets instead. At the end of the day we have 1 planet, 1 ozone layer and 1 chance to do something about it. Eco cars and other ideas are good but probably way too expensive to buy for the average person and we’re not exactly anywhere close to finding sustainable life on other planets… we cock up this one and everything goes!!

http://www.fabulousweddingboutique.co.uk wedding dresses derby

i agree with the post above, government really arent doing enough quickly enough, ozone layer is depleting. here in the uk the weather has changed so much and around the world there are more and more economic disasters… tsunamis etc

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